There's a problem with your browser or settings.

Your browser or your browser's settings are not supported. To get the best experience possible, please download a compatible browser. If you know your browser is up to date, you should check to ensure that
javascript is enabled.

NASA News

HOUSTON – The astronauts onboard space shuttle Endeavour are getting ready to conclude their two-week flight to the International Space Station with a planned landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida tonight at 9:20 CST.

The crew’s wakeup call at 1:14 p.m. was “The Marines’ Hymn,” played for Commander George Zamka, who is a colonel in the Marine Corps.

Landing support has been called up today at KSC and at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., where there are two opportunities each for a shuttle landing today. The first KSC landing opportunity calls for a deorbit burn at 8:14 p.m. and a landing at 9:20 p.m. The second calls for a deorbit burn at 9:50 p.m. and landing at 10:55 p.m.

The first West Coast opportunity requires a deorbit burn at 11:20 p.m. and a 12:25 a.m. Monday landing. The final landing opportunity has a deorbit burn at 12:56 a.m. and landing at 2 a.m. Monday.

The Spaceflight Meteorology Group is forecasting low cloud ceilings and a chance of showers within 30 nautical miles of the runway at both the primary and backup landing sites for today’s four landing opportunities, and Entry Flight Director Norm Knight has indicated that a decision on whether a landing attempt can be made is likely to be pushed to a point late in the process.

Meanwhile, normal communication has been restored to the International Space Station after a series of outages linked to a computer issue. Flight controllers in Houston are still investigating the issue, but suspect this morning’s unplanned transitions among the three command and control computers in the U.S. segment of the station were related to a system in the Columbus module that packages data for telemetry to the Columbus Control Center outside Munich, Germany. All three of the computers are functioning, and the issue never impacted operation of the station’s life support systems.

The next status report will be issued after landing, or earlier if events warrant.